Avis And Their 3 Minute Promise

Written by Vera Raposo
on July 31st, 2008 / 3 Comments / Print this

Avis and their 3 Minute Promise

Guest post by Bill Hogg www.billhogg.ca

In the same vein as my earlier post Are You Measuring What Counts, the blog Customer Relations referred me to an article where EasierTravel reported that Avis has launched its “3 Minute Promise” service, for Avis Preferred members in France and the UK.

“The 3 Minute service begins when the customer enters the Avis premises and time can be measured by the renter with a stop watch provided at the start of each rental process. If the time elapsed is over the three minutes, the customer will receive an apology, and a few days later, a retail voucher worth €30/£20 in the post.”

Daniel McCarthy, Commercial Director, Avis UK explains: “It is our aim to enhance our customer service through best practice initiatives such as this, particularly focusing on offering a fast, efficient service.” Daniel continues, “This is part of Avis’ ongoing commitment to consistent benefits and standards across our network.” (read full article)

I thought I would offer a slightly different take on these kinds of initiatives.

The Avis view (and one I believe shared by Customer Relations) is that this is putting the customers’ needs at the forefront. So far we agree.

I guess where I think we need to expand the discussion is based on the the concept — What gets measured gets done.

My concern is that if time becomes the measurement, then others things, like quality customer service, may suffer. You need to make sure that your “time-based” measures have a corresponding measure of quality of customer service experience.

I often say to clients with call-centres, “The easiest way to get a higher number of calls each hour is just hang up faster.” The customer may not be happy, but if all you want is higher throughput then hanging up will deliver it.

Now obviously, I am not serious, but it demonstrates the point.

So make sure you don’t get lulled into thinking that numeric measures alone will lead to quality customer service. Make sure the quality aspect is also built into your tracking.

Something to think about.
Cheers!

Bill’s passion is branded customer service that exceeds expectations. He works with clients to activate a “customer-focused” culture where engaged employees internalize the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience — internally and externally.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.